Bismillah. This is about the narrator of hadith #6 of An-Nawawi’s hadith. I have never heard of this companion. I rifled through all of my Islamic books, trying to find something more on him, but I couldn’t 😦 So this post is just what is in the book.

Abu Abdullah al-Nu’maan ibn Basheer al-Ansaari al-Khazraji was one of the first Muslims born to the Ansaar of Madinah. He was quite young, probably around ten years of age, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) died. According to the scholars of hadith, hadith cannot be taken from a child. However, if a child had heard and memorized something while he was a child and then later narrated it to others, that is acceptable. That was the case with this hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

During the time of Muawiya, he held different governmental posts in Kufah and Hims. He was well-known for his speaking ability and poetry. He was killed in Hims around the year 64 AH.

In Sahih al-Bukhari, there are six hadith narrated from al-Nu’maan. In other works, the total of his hadith comes to about 116. Many of these hadith he may not have heard directly from the Prophet (peace be upon him) but from the older Companions. However, there is a clear narration that al-Nu’maan heard this particular hadith directly from the Prophet “with his own ears.”

inshaAllah the next post about An-Nawawi’s hadith will be the first part of the discussion.